Note: this is more than one app at a time as the process below involves a couple of apps (called app smashing) but definitely worth your time.
One more note: tap here to view a video giving you visuals of the step-by step instructions.
There’s nothing like pencil and paper to demonstrate comprehension of a concept. However, it seems theory book and worksheet assignments are often left undone between lessons. Utilizing the right apps is a sure way to solve this problem.
Numerous online resources offer outstanding worksheets to review just about any music-related concept. Susan Paradis has offered incredibly creative, free worksheets for years.
(If you enjoyer her resources, don’t forget to donate.) What you’ll find is a plethora of worksheets that encourage reinforcement off the bench and on the page with a pencil. Printing the colorful and carefully-crafted pages is an option, but usually completed worksheets find their way to the trash bin. Tablets and the integration of various apps offer an option for students to complete these review sheets with no ink or paper.
The following process coined “app smashing” will help you maintain a tree-saving studio and promise more completed theory assignments as a finger-tip or stylus and a screen are exponentially more appealing than mere pencil and paper.
Steps to paperless worksheets
Shop Open the Safari browser and type in the address of a favorite site. Once a PDF is located, tap on the link until it appears on the screen.
Select Tap on the screen and the words “Open in iBooks” or “Open in …” will appear in the upper right-hand corner. This offers many choices depending upon the apps on your iPad. A must-have app in which to save the document is Evernote.
Stockpile Tapping on the Evernote icon will move the document to this versatile app which serves as a spacious warehouse for all types of media including photos, posts, emails, and your favorite PDFs. The app syncs across multiple devices so if you find a document that you like while browsing on your laptop, you can choose to store it in Evernote, and you can magically access the same document on your iPad.
Organize After the document is opened in Evernote, you have an option to name the note and choose a notebook in which to file it. Creating notebooks and labeling them with titles such as Key Signatures, or Rhythm will help you keep your collection of notes organized and easy to retrieve.
Transfer Instead of printing off the worksheet for each student, open the document in Evernote and tap on the screen. A small square with an arrow pointing upward on the right-hand corner will appear which offers to open the document in various apps. One to consider is Notability.
Utilize When a document is opened in Notability, users can write with various pen colors and highlighters or type text on the screen/document with a finger tip or stylus. In addition, the worksheets can be easily duplicated, retitled and moved into customizable color-coded folders labelled with student names.
Not sure about smashing all these apps? Consider SproutBeat, a one-stop shopping music worksheet app that offers a growing library of documents for completion with on-screen annotation. The app offers only one copy of each worksheet with an option to print but no option to duplicate for use on the iPad. Multiple students can use the worksheets if the answers from a previous student are cleared.


The Links, Platforms and Approximate Pricing
Evernote, Mac, Windows, iOS and Android, Free with In-App Purchases
Notability, Ginger Labs, iOS only, $2.99
SproutBeat, Laughlin, iPad Only, Free to $19.99